Prof posts positive urban youth development tips online

by Geoff Koch, NSCL

February 3, 2006 - MSU sociologist Carl Taylor studies how to model positive youth development in some of the toughest urban neighborhoods in America. In an effort to reach new audiences with ideas from two decades of his work, Taylor is experimenting with a new publishing paradigm.

Much of Taylor's latest scholarly work, Growing Up Urban, is available for free viewing and printing via his ever-changing Web site, cstaylor.org

The publication is part handbook for people working in youth development roles and part survey of contemporary urban society. And sprinkled throughout are images and voices from the communities Taylor studies.

“There is life beyond our neighborhood,” reads the quote from Jamal, age 20, that kicks off the best practices chapter. “You just need somebody to help you find it.”

Taylor has published extensively in academic journals and has several traditional books to his credit. But online media, he believes, provides a new opportunity to reach out – both to kids stuck in decaying urban neighborhoods to those professionals, parents, teachers and coaches trying to reach them.

“It is of paramount importance that activities and new technologies are utilized at every opportunity to positively influence young people and help to counteract the increasingly pervasive negative influences of street culture,” Taylor writes in the introduction.

New content is being added regularly to cstaylor.org, which is expected to become more full-featured over time. To download Growing Up Urban, visit the E-BOOKS section of the Web site.